Proxy Cache Purge vs WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin

This plugin does not install nor configure a cache proxy. It acts as an interface with such services. One common method of caching content for websites is via the use of reverse proxy caching. Common examples of this are Varnish and NGINX. These systems allow a website to update content and have the visitor’s experience cached without the need for complex plugins storing the files locally and using up a user’s disk space. A reverse proxy cache is installed in front of a server and reviews requests. If the page being requested is already cached, it delivers the cached content. Otherwise it generates the page and the cache on demand. The Proxy Cache Purge plugin sends a request to delete (aka flush) the cached data of a page or post every time it’s modified. How It Works When content on a site is updated by WordPress, the plugin reaches out to the proxy cache service with the URL of the page, requesting the cache be deleted. Not all pages are deleted from the cache on every change. For example, when a post, page, or custom post type is edited, or a new comment is added, only the following pages will purge: The front page The post/page edited Any categories, tags, and/or custom taxonomies associated with the page Related feeds Associated JSON API pages In addition, your entire cache will be deleted on the following actions: Changing themes Pressing the Empty Cache button on the toolbar Plugins can hook into the purge actions as well, to filter their own events to trigger a purge. On a multisite network using subfolders, only network admins can purge the main site. Keep Your Cache Warm Purging is only half the story. Once Proxy Cache Purge empties a page, the cache for that URL is gone, so the next visitor triggers a full uncached render and waits for it. On busy sites this “cache stampede” shows up as slow pages right after every update. Cacheability Pro is a companion plugin that closes that gap: it automatically re-warms purged URLs in the background so visitors keep hitting fast, cached responses, and it tunes your cache headers so more of your pages stay cacheable in the first place. Proxy Cache Purge handles invalidation; Cacheability Pro handles everything around it. Monitor Your Cache Proxy Cache Purge keeps your cache fresh, but how often is it actually being hit? If you run your own Varnish or NGINX server, GetPageSpeed Amplify shows your cache hit rate, request volume, and backend health over time, with a free tier. Proxy Cache Purge handles invalidation; Amplify shows you whether the cache is doing its job. Development Mode If you’re working on a site and need to turn off caching in one of two ways: Add define( 'VHP_DEVMODE', true ); to your wp-config.php file Go to Proxy Cache -> Settings and enable Debug Mode for 24 hours at a time That will break cache on page loads. It is not recommended for production! Cache Tags (BETA) As of version 5.4.0, Proxy Cache Purge includes an optional Cache Tags / Surrogate Keys purge mode. This feature is marked as BETA and is disabled by default. When enabled, the plugin: Adds cache-tag headers to WordPress responses (for example, tagging pages by post ID, post type, taxonomy terms, author, and archives). Uses tag-based purges instead of individual URL purges when content is updated, which can reduce purge traffic and improve consistency on complex sites. Requirements: A proxy cache that supports Cache Tags / Surrogate Keys and advertises this via standard Surrogate-Capability headers (for example, Surrogate-Capability: vhp="Surrogate/1.0 tags/1"). How to enable: Go to Proxy Cache → Settings → Purge Method and check “Use Cache Tags (Surrogate Keys)”. The checkbox is only enabled when your cache tells WordPress it supports tags (or when you explicitly enable it via a define). Alternatively, you can force-enable or force-disable detection via wp-config.php: define( ‘VHP_VARNISH_TAGS’, true ); // Force treat cache as tag-capable define( ‘VHP_VARNISH_TAGS’, false ); // Force treat cache as not tag-capable Because this feature depends on your cache configuration, it is recommended that you test it carefully in staging before enabling it on production. Background Purging with WP-Cron On busy sites, sending many PURGE requests directly from admin requests can slow things down. When you define DISABLE_WP_CRON as true in wp-config.php (because you are running a real system cron that calls wp-cron.php), Proxy Cache Purge automatically switches to an asynchronous mode: Purge requests (both URL-based and tag-based, when Cache Tags are enabled) are collected into a small per-site queue. The queue is processed by WP-Cron in the background, keeping your admin and content-editing actions responsive even when many URLs or tags must be invalidated. Object-cache purges (the “Purge Database Cache” option) remain synchronous and are not affected by this behaviour. The Proxy Cache settings page and Site Health integration expose basic queue status so you can verify that background purging is healthy; if the queue appears large or very old, check that your system cron is correctly invoking WordPress cron. Important: Cron Frequency and Cache Freshness When using background purging, the frequency of your system cron determines how quickly cache invalidations are processed. The longer the interval between cron runs, the longer visitors may see stale content after updates. For minimal stale content, run your system cron every minute: * * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/wp-cron.php If you can tolerate slightly longer delays, every 2-5 minutes is also acceptable. However, running cron less frequently (e.g., every 15 minutes) means cache purges may be delayed by that amount after content changes. Note: Scheduled posts are handled specially. When a scheduled post is published via WP-Cron, the cache is purged synchronously within the same cron run, ensuring immediate cache invalidation without waiting for the next cron execution. For detailed instructions on setting up a proper Linux-based WordPress cron, see: WordPress Cron Optimization. Disabling Background Purging If you have DISABLE_WP_CRON defined but do not want background purging (for example, on low-traffic sites where immediate purges are preferred), you can force-disable cron-based purging by adding this to your wp-config.php: define( 'VHP_DISABLE_CRON_PURGING', true ); With this constant set, all cache purges will execute immediately during the request, regardless of the DISABLE_WP_CRON setting. WP-CLI Purge Purge commands let you empty the cache. wp varnish purge – Flush the entire site cache (equivalent to clicking “Empty Cache” in admin) wp varnish purge --all – Explicitly flush the entire site cache wp varnish purge – Flush cache for a specific URL and all content below it (wildcard) wp varnish purge --url-only – Flush cache for only the exact URL specified (no wildcard) wp varnish purge --tag= – Flush cache by tag (requires Cache Tags mode to be enabled) Examples: wp varnish purge – Purge entire site wp varnish purge --all – Same as above, more explicit wp varnish purge https://example.com/hello-world/ – Purge this URL and everything below it wp varnish purge https://example.com/hello-world/ --url-only – Purge only this exact URL wp varnish purge https://example.com/wp-content/themes/ --wildcard – Purge all theme files wp varnish purge --tag=p-123 – Purge all pages tagged with post ID 123 wp varnish purge --tag=pt-post – Purge all cached pages of post type “post” Debug Debugging can help you figure out why your cache isn’t working as well as it could. The default is for your home page, but you can pass any URL on your domain. wp varnish debug [ ] Available parameters: [--include-headers] — Include headers in debug check output [--include-grep] — Grep active theme and plugin directories for common issues DevMode Development mode allows you to disable the cache, temporarily. wp varnish devmode [ ] – Change development mode state Async purge queue (cron-mode) When you define DISABLE_WP_CRON as true and run a real system cron for WordPress, Proxy Cache Purge can move heavy purge work into a small background queue that is processed by WP‑Cron. You can inspect and manage that queue via WP‑CLI: wp varnish queue status – show whether cron-mode is active, if a full purge is queued, counts of queued URLs/tags, and the last queue run time. wp varnish queue process – process any items currently in the queue (useful to run after deploys or cache‑sensitive operations). wp varnish queue clear – clear the queue without sending any PURGE requests. These commands do not replace your normal WordPress cron (you still need a cron entry that calls wp cron event run --due-now or hits wp-cron.php), but they give you a simple operational handle when using cron‑mode. Understanding Purge Behavior There are different types of cache purges, and they behave differently: Manual Purges (Admin Bar) “Purge Cache (All Pages)” – Sends a single regex purge request to invalidate the entire cache. Always executes immediately. “Purge Cache (this page)” – Purges only the exact URL you’re viewing. Always executes immediately. Manual purges are always immediate, even when background cron-mode is enabled. This is intentional: when you click a button, you expect immediate results. Automatic Purges (Post Save/Update) When you save or update a post, the plugin automatically purges: The post’s URL The homepage Category archive pages Tag archive pages Author archive page Date-based archives RSS feeds Related REST API endpoints This can be 20-50+ URLs depending on your site structure. When cron-mode is enabled, these automatic purges are queued and processed in the background to avoid slowing down the post editor. Key Difference Action URLs Purged Uses Cron Queue? “Purge Cache (All Pages)” 1 (regex) No – always immediate “Purge Cache (this page)” 1 No – always immediate Post save/update 20-50+ Yes (if cron-mode enabled) If you need to immediately purge all URLs related to a specific post (not just the post URL), save the post – the automatic purge will handle all related URLs.

Official Website You can find more information on our website (wpfastestcache.com) Welcome to the page of the WP Fastest Cache plugin, a WordPress cache plugin developed to speed up WordPress sites. In today’s world where every second counts, optimizing your website’s performance is very important. Meet WP Fastest Cache, your caching plugin that you can use to speed up WordPress websites. Optimize the performance of your website with WP Fastest Cache. Improve Google PageSpeed, Core Web Vitals, GTmetrix and Pingdom score with our wp cache plugin. In addition, page speed is a ranking factor in Google’s search algorithm. Therefore, using cache plugins helps improve your SEO ranking. Our WordPress optimization plugin not only accelerates your site but also boosts SEO rankings. Features Mod_Rewrite which is the fastest method is used in this plugin All cache files are deleted when a post or page is published Admin can delete all cached files from the options page Admin can delete minified css and js files from the options page Block cache for specific page or post with Short Code Cache Timeout – All cached files are deleted at the determinated time Cache Timeout for specific pages Enable/Disable cache option for mobile devices Enable/Disable cache option for logged-in users SSL support CDN support – Effortlessly enhance website speed and performance with seamless CDN integration, supporting Bunny CDN, Cloudflare, and various other leading CDN providers. CDN integration modifies the URLs of static resources, enabling these assets to be served from your CDN service provider Cloudflare support – Cloudflare integration triggers the clearing of the cache on Cloudflare through API when a cache purge is initiated. As a result, WP Fastest Cache and Cloudflare operate seamlessly in tandem Preload Cache – Create the cache of all the site automatically Exclude pages and user-agents WP-CLI cache clearing Proxy Cache – Varnish Cache Integration to clear proxy cached content automatically when the cache created by WP Fastest Cache is cleared Performance Optimization WP Fastest Cache is not only a wp cache plugin but also a speed optimization wordpress cache plugin. There are many features such as Minify Html, Minify Css, Enable Gzip Compression, Leverage Browser Caching, Add Expires Headers, Combine CSS, Combine JS, Disable Emoji. Page Caching – Page caching feature generates and store static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress blog to reduce initial server response time, and improving page load time. Page cache and caching play a critical role in improving website speed and overall web performance. By storing frequently accessed data, effective caching reduces server workload and significantly improves cache performance, allowing pages to be delivered faster to users. This optimization directly lowers load time and enhances page speed, resulting in a smoother user experience and better SEO. Minify Html – Using an HTML minifier is an effective way to reduce HTML size and optimize HTML by removing unnecessary spaces, comments, and line breaks. A smaller HTML file helps reduce page size, which directly improves page speed and leads to a faster website experience for users. By focusing on web performance optimization, optimized HTML allows browsers to load and render pages more efficiently, helping to improve website speed, lower bandwidth usage, and deliver better overall performance across all devices Minify Css – CSS minify techniques play a crucial role in modern web development by reducing unnecessary characters through a reliable css minifier. With effective css compression, developers can compress CSS files and apply proper css minification to optimize CSS for production environments. This approach helps reduce CSS file size, which directly contributes to improve website speed and overall css performance optimization. As part of a broader page speed optimization strategy, these practices significantly enhance website performance optimization and lead to better website loading performance, especially on mobile and low-bandwidth connections Enable Gzip Compression – Reduce the size of files sent from your server to increase the speed to which they are transferred to the browser Leverage browser caching – Browser cache plays a critical role in how efficiently a web browser cache stores static resources like images, stylesheets, and scripts, directly impacting page load speed. By allowing returning visitors to load files from their local browser cache instead of downloading them again, websites can significantly reduce server requests and improve website speed. Properly configured browser caching not only creates a faster and smoother user experience but also helps lower bandwidth usage and enhance overall site performance Combine CSS – Reduce number of HTTP round-trips by combining multiple CSS resources into one Combine JS – Combining JavaScript files is a core technique in javascript optimization and js optimization, especially when the goal is to reduce requests and improve page load speed. By combine js assets or combine javascript files into a single bundle, developers can streamline how scripts are delivered to the browser. Whether you call it js combine or javascript combine, the idea is the same: fewer HTTP requests mean faster performance. Similarly, approaches that merge js or merge javascript—also known as js merge or javascript merge—help eliminate overhead caused by loading multiple separate files. When done correctly, combining and merging scripts leads to cleaner delivery, better caching, and noticeably faster websites Disable Emoji – You can remove the emoji inline css and wp-emoji-release.min.js Premium Performance Optimization The free version is enough to speed up your site but in the premium version there are extra features such as Mobile Cache, Widget Cache, Minify HTML Plus, Minify CSS Plus, Minify JS, Combine JS Plus, Defer Javascript, Optimize Images, Convert WebP, Database Cleanup, Google Fonts Async, Lazy Load and Delay JS for super fast load times. Mobile Cache Widget Cache Minify HTML Plus Minify CSS Plus Minify Javascript – Minify JS is a core step in web performance optimization because js minify techniques remove unnecessary characters, comments, and whitespace, making files smaller and faster to load. Through proper javascript minification, developers can compress JavaScript assets and significantly reduce transfer size, which directly supports effective js optimization and overall javascript optimization strategies. When combined with caching and code splitting, minified scripts help improve website speed, lower bandwidth usage, and enhance user experience. As a result, page speed optimization becomes easier to achieve, leading to faster render times and better search engine rankings. Combine JS Plus Defer Javascript – Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript resources. Consider delivering critical JS inline and deferring all non-critical JS Optimize Images – Optimized images load faster and consume less cellular data. Looking for an easy image compressor? Our tool lets you compress images instantly, including Compress JPEG and Compress PNG options. Enjoy fast image compression to reduce image size without losing quality. Perfect for quick image optimization with a smart image optimizer designed for all your needs. Convert WebP – Serve images in next-gen formats. Image formats like JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, and WebP often provide better compression than PNG or JPEG, which means faster downloads and less data consumption. A fast and reliable WebP converter helps you convert to WebP in seconds. Whether you need a WebP convert tool, a JPG to WEBP Converter, PNG to WEBP Converter, or a simple image to WebP option, you can easily optimize your images. Quickly handle JPG to WEBP, PNG to WEBP, jpg convert to webp, and png convert to webp tasks to reduce file size and improve web performance. Database Cleanup – To keep your system running smoothly, it’s important to clean database structures regularly and ensure you clean DB records that are no longer needed. A database cleaner is essential for effective database cleaning and long-term database optimization. By removing unused entries and organizing data efficiently, you can significantly improve database performance and speed up database operations. Modern db cleaner tools automate the entire db cleaning process, helping developers maintain fast, reliable, and scalable systems. The Database Cleanup feature clears out all of the garbage datas such as post revisions, trashed posts & pages, comments from trash & spam, trackbacks and pingbacks, transient options, orphaned post meta, comment meta, user meta, term meta, and term relationship etc. Google Fonts Async Lazy Load – Lazy loading technique improve page speed and overall website loading time by loading content only when it is needed. Using lazy load images, lazy loading images, lazy load videos, and lazy load iframe helps reduce initial load size, enhances web performance, and delivers a smoother user experience. When implemented correctly, these methods make it easier to optimize website performance, lower bandwidth usage, and ensure faster, more efficient page delivery for both users and search engines. Delay JS – The Delay JavaScript feature helps reduce the ‘Reduce unused JavaScript’ warning in the Google PageSpeed Insights tool Information It is very inconvenient to use multiple caching plugins at the same time. That’s why you need to disable plugins such as LiteSpeed Cache, WP-Optimize, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, SiteGround Optimizer, Breeze while using WP Fastest Cache. WP Fastest Cache is compatible with most popular plugins such as Contact Form 7, Yoast SEO, Elementor Website Builder, Classic Editor, Akismet Spam Protection, WooCommerce, Contact Form by WPForms, Really Simple SSL, All-in-One WP Migration, Yoast Duplicate Post, Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan, WordPress Importer, UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin, MonsterInsights, All in One SEO, WP Mail SMTP by WPForms. Supported Languages Although there are over 7000 languages spoken in the world today, we feel very lucky to support 30 languages for now. However, localizing or adapting a plugin to another language or culture is time consuming and a demanding task. That’s where the amazing Translation Contributors team of WordPress comes into play. These selfless people spent their precious time without expecting anything in return so that other people can use the add-ons more easily. We sincerely thank all of them. Chinese Simplified (China), Chinese Traditional (Taiwan), Czech, Dutch (Belgium), Dutch (Netherlands), English (South Africa), English (UK), Finnish, French (France), Galician, German (Germany), Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean (Korea), Persian, Russian, Slovak (Slovakia), Slovenian, Spanish (Argentina), Spanish (Chile), Spanish (Colombia), Spanish (Ecuador), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Venezuela), Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian